


leading with my jaw

by WishingTree



Series: Cabin Shenanigans [2]
Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-22
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-05-02 22:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5265509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>April’s pretty happy with the life she’s got with her friends at Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's Camp for Hardcore Lady Types. There's an opportunity for an adventure everywhere she turns, and it suits her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	leading with my jaw

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “Bamboo Bones” by Against Me!;

April woke up to the sound of the bedframe creaking worryingly above her. Slowly, she blinked and turned onto her back, a heavy hand moving to push her hair out of her face. Still half asleep, she heard the sounds of uneasy sleep coming from Jo’s bunk.

Yawning, April nudged the blankets off of her and tumbled out of her bunk, squinting as she realized she was now sprawled out on the floor. She clumsily pushed herself to her feet, stepping onto the edge of her bed and reaching above her head to pull herself into Jo’s. At another time she may have been more alert, but in her half-asleep haze she didn’t even realize when she grabbed Jo’s ankle instead of the bed frame.

Jo jerked awake with a strangled gasp, lashing out blindly. Her fist connected hard with April’s shoulder, causing her to stumble and her foot to slip back down.

Jo was breathing heavily as she tried to get her bearings, and April only blinked groggily up at her, still more asleep than not. Jo gasped when she recognized her friends mussed up head of hair next to her bed, trembling slightly from the adrenaline still running through her system.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Jo whispered, holding out an arm to help pull April up. She squinted in the darkness, trying to see if she had caused any damage, but April had barely even registered the hit.

“S’okay, Jo,” April yawned again, eyes barely open as she clambered up and tugged on the blankets to get them in some haphazard shape. She snuggled properly into Jo’s side, “Are you okay? We can fight them. We’ll fight all of them,” she mumbled into the blanket.

“Who are we fighting?”

“Whatever’s making it hard for you to sleep.” Pressing her face into Jo’s shoulder, she sighed. “No more bad dreaming. We got this.” She tugged at Jo’s arm to pull her down, and Jo didn’t resist, exhaling as she let herself relax onto the mattress.

 

April waved her arms around in excitement, looking at her cabin-mates sitting around the campfire. “You know what this needs? Cookies!”

Ripley immediately jumped up and raised her arms. “I like cookies!”

It was a gentle summer night, perfect for a campfire outside. The air around them was filled with nothing but the comforting sounds of the woods around them, tonight leaning more towards peaceful rather than ominous. The girls planned to take full advantage of it, setting up near the campfire.

“Where are we going to get cookies? It’s the middle of the night,” Jen spoke up doubtfully, fingers smoothing down the edge of her blanket.

April waved a hand dismissively as she got to her feet, “That’s okay, I know a place.”

Jen blinked. “We are literally in the middle of the woods.” April ignored her as she scampered off with Ripley close behind, the younger girl cheering loudly in the quiet night.

“Can we get marshmallows?”

“Duh we can get marshmallows!” Their voices faded away and Jen looked on in confusion.

“Where could you possibly…!” Jen let the sentence trail off as she watched them disappear around the corner.

Jo leaned back on her hands, completely relaxed as she watched her two friends disappear into the darkness. “I wouldn’t worry about it, they’ll be back soon.”

Jen turned to her, “Do you know where they’re going?”

Jo shrugged, “Nope. But they know not to leave the campground without us.” She smiled at her, trying to put her at ease, “Let’s wait and see what they come up with.”

Mal and Molly didn’t look concerned either, more occupied with untangling Bubbles from their blanket, so Jen hesitantly sat back and crossed her legs, twisting her hands together.

Several minutes later, April announced their return with a dramatic, “Ta-dah!” as she burst back into the circle and theatrically emptied her arms, Ripley following suit. They all stared at the large pile of assorted packages of cookies now lying in front of them.

“Did you guys just steal the mess hall’s entire supply of cookies?”

“Yup!” Ripley looked very proud of herself as she pulled open her pack of marshmallows.

April waved off Jen’s incoming concerns as she retook her place on the ground, reaching out for the closest box. “It’s okay, delivery day is tomorrow so they’ll get a new shipment.”

“And we only broke, like, two and a half camp rules.”

“Yeah, the third is a little vague in these circumstances so we aren’t entirely sure if we broke it completely, or maybe just bent it a little? We settled on half broken.”

“It seemed most fair,” Ripley nodded in agreement. Her mouth was already full of marshmallows, and she offered the open bag to Jen with a grin as April began explaining their daring infiltration of the unguarded mess hall.

Jen still looked conflicted. “Hey, don’t worry,” Molly said comfortingly, leaning over to hand her a cookie. “You know Ripley would have eaten them all tomorrow morning anyway. They always put the older stuff out first.” As if to prove her point, Ripley reached over to grab the pack by Molly’s knee even as she struggled to chew the marshmallows in her mouth.

Jen hesitated before accepting the cookie and choosing to get comfortable in the firelight. She shrugged it off, deciding to entertain her potential future felons with stories about the brightened constellations, glad for the night. And even the cookies. Her girls were much more likely to humor her when they had food.

 

“Hey,” April reached up and waved her hand around to get Molly’s attention from where she was slouched comfortably against a tree. “Molly. Farewell, my friend. This is the end. We’ve been left to die.” When Molly looked down at her she sighed loudly and draped her arm over her eyes.

Molly huffed in amusement, sitting down properly and crossing her legs. “Actually, I think we just have to wait for the others to come back, it’ll be like 10 minutes.”

April propped herself up on her elbows. “That’s basically the same thing! Why were we voted to stay behind?”

“Mostly ‘cause they just needed 3 people, I think, and we were farthest away from the group.”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.” April thought for a moment before sitting up and pulling out her diary. “Wanna help me plan for hide and seek?” She pulled out a pen and clicked it open, waving the open pages towards the blonde.

“Sure,” They sat next to each other with the book open on their knees, Bubbles perched in between them to point helpfully. Molly quirked an eyebrow at the beginning of April’s suggestions, “This looks like a pretty aggressive plan.”

“I’m telling you, best way to live.”

Leaning against each other, they spent the rest of the time outlining winning strategies for the upcoming camp-wide game.

(As proud as April was about the finalized plans, Jen still got the chance to say ‘I told you so’ when it all blew up in their faces. Literally.)

 

“Hey Mal, check it out!” April held up her find, a bright purple water gun.

“What’s that doing here?” Mal reached out and examined it.

April shrugged, “It was just under that bush. There’s still water in it.”

Mal glanced at her, seeing the gleam in her eyes. “You’re not planning some kind of overdramatic water showdown with only one water gun, are you?”

“Of course not,” April said, grinning impishly. “Besides,” leaning forwards, she snatched the gun out of Mal’s hands and quickly jumped backwards, “You’ll never defeat me!”

Mal grinned and played along. “Is that what you think?

“I see you, villain!” April declared imperiously. “I know your plan, and you’ll never get past me.”

Mal held her hands up as they slowly started circling each other, April aiming the water gun at her. “You think you can stop me, scout?”

“I think I was born for this,” April grinned devilishly at Mal, and Mal chuckled. “So we’re enemies, yeah? Does that make one of us the bad guy?” April asked, tilting her head as she considered it.

“Of course not,” Mal said, “We’re both agents working for opposing sides, with just a little bit too much blind faith and misguided loyalty. Neither of us is aware of the whole pic– OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT.” She shrieked and jumped towards April, distracted by something on the ground.

April narrowed her eyes at their surroundings and quickly dropping the game and prepared for banshees or goblins or whatever the forest would throw at them. But Mal only clutched at her arm, before pausing and standing properly again. “Oh. Never mind. That’s not a spider.” She scratched sheepishly at the back of her head. “Sorry.”

April laughed, using her shoe to disrupt the clump of twigs that Mal pointed at. Forgetting she was holding the plastic water gun, she lifted up her hand to poke fun of Mal for jumping at twigs and almost smacked her in the arm with it. Eyes wide, she hurried to change its path while Mal brought up her own hands to deflect it.

The water gun flew out of their hands and skidded along the ground a couple feet away. April and Mal glanced at each other before laughing loudly and lunging for it, shoving each other out of the way.

Mal reached it first, pulling a fairly impressive somersault to keep it out of April’s reach. She spun around and leveled it at her, grinning wickedly as April put her hands up. “Now is your last chance, scout.”

“No! I’ll never let you get to the camp!”

Mal steadied herself on one knee and narrowed her eyes. “Then you will die for your loyalty.” She quickly aimed the water gun and doused her with the last bit of water, and April clutched her hand to her chest, spitting out water and staggering around before falling dramatically to the ground.

Mal laughed and stood up, brushing off her knees as April continued lying on the ground groaning theatrically.

April blinked and dropped her act. “Oh hey look,” she popped up and reached under a pile of leaves she’d disturbed with her overdramatic death scene. “I found another one!” She waved the second water gun in the air and Mal rested the one she was holding against her shoulder.

“Huh, I guess someone lost these guys a while ago. We should probably go pass them on to one of the counselors.”

“No way! We can’t just _hand_ them over yet, we could have so much fun still.”

“Camp policy says no water guns,” Mal said dubiously.

“Come on Mal, it’ll be fun! Just one water fight,” April widened her eyes pleadingly. “It’s hot too, I’m sure nobody will complain about a little refreshing.”

Mal rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand to help the redhead up. April accepted it, reaching up to adjust the drooping bow in her hair once she was on her feet. “Trust me, it’s gonna be great.” She held up the second water gun, and once she had shaken it lightly to determine there was still water in it, aimed the nozzle and soaked Mal.

Mal only laughed, peeling the side of her shirt away from her body. “You know you’re like, covered in dirt, right? You probably didn’t have to roll around on the ground so much.”

“Hey, a true Lumberjane always dies with honor,” April piped up cheerfully, swinging her arms as they walked back towards camp.

 

They snuck around, spreading out buckets with their ready-made water balloons at strategic positions surrounding the main campground. They eventually spotted the others from Roanoke, beckoning them over so they could arm themselves.

“Here,” April passed her water gun to Jo, who hefted it up in her hands and grinned wickedly. Grabbing a bunch of water balloons into the crook of her arm, April cackled. “I’m going to get Jen.” She left the others as they sorted out who got possession of the second water gun.

 

“Did – did you just throw a water balloon at me? Seriously?!” Jen gaped at April, then down at her dripping uniform.

“Come on Jen, it’s summer!” April threw her head back, “HEY GUYS! WATER FIGHT!!!”

Campers and counselors alike responded with cheers and yells of excitement, scattering to grab buckets of water balloons and fight over the hoses. April saw some of the other counselors scrambling to pull out the caches of water guns they had confiscated over the summers and beamed with pride.

Jen stood in the middle of the commotion, watching Roanoke press their advantage of a head start by hitting unarmed campers as fast as they could. “You’re all losers.”

“Hey, which one of us is still dry in the middle of a water fight? Not you. That seems like I’m doing the opposite of losing to me.” April tossed her last water balloon up and down with one hand propped up on her hip, slowly backing away as she raised her eyebrows at Jen challengingly.

“Oh it’s ON,” Jen swiped her standard issue beret off her head and crammed it in her pocket. She immediately dove into the fray, somehow coming up with one of the hoses, and April whooped as she started running, laughs echoing into the air.

**Author's Note:**

> This has..... no real direction. Apologies.


End file.
